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USC Valedictorian Paul VanWieren The CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT OF AN adventurous engineering undergraduate In four years at USC, Paul VanWieren emerged with an unblemished record of straight A’s in biomedical engineering with an emphasis on electrical engineering, all while retaining the humility and work ethic learned in his hometown of Grant, Mich., population 881, where he once worked on a turkey farm. And, the soft-spoken engineering undergraduate was chosen to represent USC’s Class of 2009 as valedictorian. “Ride the buses, walk the sidewalks or bike along the gutters of Los Angeles, and you’ll encounter much of what a college degree from a prestigious university gives us: the luxury to forget poverty, hunger and homelessness,” he told USC’s Class of 2009, as he called on them to give back. VanWieren made the most of his years in Los Angeles. He lived on campus all four years and never had a car. But that didn’t stop him from exploring the city by bike, bus and foot. “I like the sense of being connected with whatever neighborhood I’m in. When you’re biking or running or riding the bus, you can see what the culture is like in each neighborhood,” he said. “It keeps you grounded. It’s so easy to get sucked into this bubble of academic life. Most of the people in the world have a different frame of mind. Getting out in neighborhoods reminds you that it’s not all about you.”
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If you consider that it’s
partially luck on where you’re born and how you’re brought up, then it allows you to retain humility about what you accomplish.
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So VanWieren would bike long distances–say, to the Getty Center and back, sometimes with Adam Benkato, of Houston, Texas, whom he met in the dorm during his freshman year and who shares an adventurous spirit. Or he would take a break from studying by running north on Figueroa Avenue to Fifth Street, then riding the glass elevator at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel to the top and enjoying the panoramic view before running back to campus. One of VanWieren’s favorite haunts is Broadway in downtown Los Angeles, home to many once-grand theaters and small ethnic businesses. He also worked in the labs of teachers who became friends, such as Edward Maby, who teaches electrical engineering, and Darrell Judge, who teaches physics.
VanWieren arrived at USC without knowing anyone, lured by a barrage of letters the university sent him while in high school and a generous merit scholarship. Both of his parents, Gerald, a physician, and Suzanne, a nurse-practitioner, had gone to college in California and approved of his decision to “get utterly away from what I knew.” They were at Commencement, as was his older brother, Andrew, who’s in medical school in Rhode Island, and his sister, Rachel, who’s studying for a Ph.D. in Latin American literature at UCLA. “If you consider that it’s partially luck on where you’re born and how you’re brought up, then it allows you to retain humility about what you accomplish,” he said. “You start thinking about how you can use what you’ve learned to help others who weren’t as fortunate.” To that end, VanWieren is involved with Engineers Without Borders, an organization that brings engineering solutions to problems in developing countries. Following graduation, he planned to work for a while to help pay off student loans, and before Commencement, already had a job with Edwards Life Sciences in Irvine, doing research on a continuous glucose monitor. VanWieren plans to enroll in a joint M.D./Ph.D. program, so he can help design neuro-prostheses to aid those with spinal cord injuries and other debilitating problems. That is, unless he goes to law school or studies philosophy or goes into politics—all among his interests. //